


Rocket Man, Burning Out His Fuse Up Here Alone

by Finchmoth_writing



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Tales From The SMP - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Grief/Mourning, Im really banking on Karl slowly losing his memory bc i dont really remember what happens in these, Immortal Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Time Traveler Karl Jacobs, description of violence, im still soft for robin dont @ me, sort of??? Im not really good at writing angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29011866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finchmoth_writing/pseuds/Finchmoth_writing
Summary: Being a time traveler sounded cool to Karl at first, but it really isn’t.It’s really not very fun at all, especially when you end up forgetting what doesn’t traumatize you.
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity/Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Like mentions of the engagement, dw i dont really know how to write all 3 of them
Comments: 5
Kudos: 157





	Rocket Man, Burning Out His Fuse Up Here Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello!! Just wanna say that there are brief descriptions of violence in the latter half of this fic, and that there may be slight divergences in the canon. Like Karl, I don’t remember parts of the Tales episodes, unfortunately. 
> 
> Title from Rocket Man by Elton John.
> 
> Take care and happy reading!

The first trip through the portal was the worst. It was disorienting, nauseating, downright terrifying. 

And in a horribly convenient sense, a great way for Karl Jacobs—an amateur time traveler—to practice improv. The locals of the town that went mad asked a lot of questions.

The town was quaint, quiet, but lively. Robin was his favorite resident. He was a loud, smart, charmingly clingy, cute kid. A sad kid, though. From what Karl had heard, Robin lost both his parents when he was younger, and had become the unofficial nurse of the town. The town farmer, Cat, could be seen as their father, though. He was the opposite of Robin in every way; calm, collected, still charming, however. Karl appreciated him, his logic when all went to shit and bloodshed and executions.

He forgot the rest of the town. He didn’t want to. He wanted to remember so, so much.

He only remembered Cat and Robin’s deaths, Robin refusing to leave the outside of the execution chamber for a whole night—not sleeping or talking or even looking up—after Cat told him “It’s okay. You’ll be okay.”

Karl didn’t want to know if he just forgot or suppressed the details of Robin’s execution.

He remembered Cornelius, though. The bitch. Karl knew him. Karl knew the man in the green cloak and the chipped mask, knew that voice like the back of his favorite stopwatch. And hated it. Hated knowing that Dream knew, saw him with now-knowing eyes.

The second time was much more tolerable. He felt like it was. Karl was thankful for the lack of nausea and motion sickness after stumbling out of his portal. He only remembered pirate jokes, salt on his tongue, and Dream. Dream was still there. Karl had fun, he genuinely enjoyed himself. Or felt like he did. Maybe that was the tradeoff of not having to watch a group of friends go insane. Memories for joy, joy for memories. Or maybe the price was having to see Dream, see thar damned mask every time Karl went back to try and fix one of Dream’s fuck ups to make his friends happy. But that raised a question, one that Karl couldn’t answer then.

Was Dream a time traveler too? That couldn’t make sense... Dream was logical, straight to the point. He wouldn’t mess with time travel even if he did have access to it. Or would he? Karl couldn’t guess. The man in the green hoodie and chipped mask was unpredictable. Maybe he would have, to fix minor mistakes, to see Cat and Robin again and go to the mad town one more time.

The third time, the third time stuck with him. 

The future should have been fun, but instead nailed Karl in the heart. So much was wrong. The city of Mizu was a mess of misinformation and unhidden bloodshed. 

Karl was morbidly curious about how, how in the name of the Dream SMP, had the past become so obscured that whole people and names were lost to history. It was terrifying, more than his first trip through the portal. 

He nearly cried at it all. Wilbur, such an important person; the man who carved a whole nation from nothing... gone, forgotten, not even a brief mention of him even in his own son’s records. Fundy, the first son of L’Manburg and one of the smartest redstoners—maybe one of the most pioneering and ambitious in the art—reduced to just being a debate of whether he was a warrior or a fucking pet. He nearly sobbed when he took in the tree room. He could almost hear Tommy and Tubbo laughing as he saw the bench and the jukebox. Maybe the spiraling tree in the room was theirs, the one that just barely touched the backrest of the bench. He considered it being a version of L’Mantree as well, a version that didn’t burn by the hands of a woman who knew all hope was lost, but that idea hurt. Almost as much as much as Sapnap and Quackity’s rooms hurt. He knew the three of them had been somewhat quiet of their engagement, somehow, but this just _hurt._ They would have been married by then, if they all lived long enough to see a marriage. They would have shared a room. Sapnap’s bed was big enough for the three of them. He wanted to punch Ranbob as he said Sapnap would sleep with lots of women. He could feel Quackity’s rage from a whole different time period. He stayed behind after the group had left the rooms, saying “I’m sorry. I’ll fix this mess. I love you.” before reluctantly leaving.

Karl briefly wondered if the skull that was nearly hidden in a corner of his cold, hidden room was one of them, his friends or fiancés.

Karl probably couldn’t forget Ranbob if he tried. Ranbob sounded like Dream. Idolized him. Probably killed the inhabitants of Mizu in Dream’s name. It made sense as his sword cleaved through Karl’s chest, right over his scars of the staged explosion from what felt like centuries ago. Right in front of the shrine to Dream. He smiled as Karl bled out, wondering if he only had one canon life left now. Smiled like he was wearing a chipped mask and not broken goggles.

Karl nearly vomited as he stood in front of the portal. His hands shook as he felt his chest, right over where a cold blade had cut him down mere moments ago. Something felt wrong, felt off, somehow. He decided in that moment that maybe he should adopt Ranboo’s ways and write down what happens during his trips. 

He felt like his hoodie was the wrong color, but he wasn’t sure.

Karl walked away from his home, the home of the portal, and wondered what Quackity and Sapnap would be doing. If they were busy... maybe he would arrange a meeting with Dream.

Yeah.

The time traveler and the enigma would have a lot to discuss, to catch up on.

**Author's Note:**

> I WANT DREAM AND KARL TO TALK ABOUT BEING FUCKING ENIGMAS OK
> 
> Also this series has my whole heart its given me so many ideas


End file.
